Warp guide



Feb.' 22, i949.

llllls IIllI lIIHI llIll T. E. WATSON WARP GUIDE Filed Aug. 8, 1945Patented Feb. 22, 1,949

WARP GUIDE rhomas E. Watson, Tewksbury, Mass., assigner to HeinzeElectric Company, Lowell, Mass.

Application August 8, 1945, Serial No. 609,537

1 Claim. i (Cl. Z55- 54) This invention relates to metal warp guidessuch as are employed in the combs of warpers, slashers, ballers, andrelated textile machines, and has particular relation to guides capableof being used in lease combs to raise or lower certain of the ends ofwarps above or below the plane of normal extent of the sheet of warps soas to form a lease therein.

The object of the present invention is to provide a new and simplifiedwarp guide of cheaper and easier construction and occupying a minimum ofspace transversely of the warps, which will be capable of diverting thewarps which pass through them either above or below the plane of thesheet of warps, while at the same time being selfthreading in theestablished meaning of this term as signifying that any intermediateportion in the length of the yarn can be introduced sidewise of the yarninto the eye of the guide in threading up. Numerous types ofself-threading guides for lease combs have been proposed which werecapable only of lifting the warps passing through them above the planeof the sheet, while the types of guides capable of both lifting anddepressing their warps with respect to such plane have either not beenself-threading, or if possessing this feature have been characterized bya degree of complexity enhancing their cost of manufacture, increasingtheir width and thus the space they occupied transversely of the warps,and relying for the retention of their warps on the use of points orhooks which tended to catch or break the adjacent Warps, which drawbackshave impaired their utility and their general adoption.

With these and other objects in view, the present invention comprisesthe novel construction set forth in the accompanying specification anddrawings.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a side elevation, Fig. 2 is a front elevation, and Fig. 3 is atop view, of the improved warp guide.

The novel guide comprises a narrow strip of sheet metal of a thicknesssuited to the Weight and number of warps to be handled by the leasecomb, of uniform width throughout its length, of which the lower portionis left in its original state to form the shank I, though provided withthe hole 3 to receive the usual retaining wire of the lease comb, whilethe upper portion is forked, preferably but not necessarily by theremoval of a longitudinal tongue of the metal so as to leave two dents5, l, spaced apart a substantial distance in the plane of the shank. Thelower end of the split formed by the removal of the tongue is rounded asindicated at the shoulder 9 to avoid any wedging and cutting of the warppassing through the guide when the warp is in contact with this portion.

The dents 5, l, are respectively bent outwardly at the shoulder S! inopposite directions away from the plane of the shank I, and thenceextend parallel to such plane and to each other in spaced mutuallyoffset relation, being again bent inwardly to cross such plane and thusto cross each other in such plane at the point ll intermediate theirlength, being bent again beyond such crossing point to extend inparallel and spaced relation to each other and to the said planethroughout the remainder of their extent. The divergence and subsequentcrossing of the dents creates an eye I3 for the retention of the warpthread I5. Preferably, but not necessarily, each dent is offset from theplane of the shank by the same distance both above and below thecrossing point Il, this equal but opposite offsetting .bringing theupper portion of each dent into the same lateral plane as the lowerportion of the other dent adjacent the eye I3, as shown in Fig. 2;however, the outward edges of the dents remain in the same planes, takenat right angles to the plane of the shank I, as do the edges of suchshank, so that the guide is no wider at its top than at its shank end,as shown in Fig. 1.

With the warp guide mounted in the lease comb with the 'plane of itsshank parallel to the course of the wai'ps in the position shown in Fig.2, the improved eye is threaded with a warp yarn coming from behind theguide by bending any intermediate portion of the warp yarn around thelefthand side and thence across the front of the lefthand dent 5, andthence behind and forward around the right-hand side of the dent 1, inthe course indicated by dotted lines at I'I, in Fig. 3, thereaftersliding the warp yarn down into the position I5, in which the yarnextends in a straight line through the eye I3 of the guide.

To facilitate this bending of the warp yarn into zigzag form across thefront of rear dent 5 and behind the front dent 1, the latter dentl ispreferably made slightly shorter than the rear dent, to make it easierfor the operator to throw the rst bend around the rear dent withoutinterference by the forward dent 1, the sliding movement of the warpyarn down toward the eye being begun as soon as this bend is formedaround dent 5, so that dent 'I intercepts the warp yarn and forms thecompanion bend as the operator continues the downward and forward pullwhich brings the yarn into eye I3. So long as the warp yarn coming frombehind the guide is kept tight, the `crossing of the two dents at il atsubstan tially a right angle to each other prevents upward escape of thethread from the eye, thus enabling all warps which pass through the eyesI3 of the bank of warp guides in the lease comb to be depressed belowthe plane of the sheet of warps in forming the lease, as Well asenabling these Warps in eyes i3 to be raised above such plane byengagement with shoulders 9 in case it is desired to raise them to forman opposite lease. In this Way the improved warp guide works in bothdirections, upward and downward.

It is to be noted that the entire guide presents only smooth surfacesand easy bends tothe yarns, with no hooks, points, springs, or otherprojections intermediate its length to catch the yarns or to fail inuse. This non-fouling feature prevents the unwanted deflection of thealternate Warps of the sheet, which pass between each two successiveguides but not through the eyes, and thus are desired to maintain theirnormal position in the plane of the sheet of Wraps during theleaseforming. l

Not only does the simple and compact form of the improved guide permitthe use of a Very large number thereof in lease combs of standardlength, but also they can be formed out of lightweight and inexpensivemetal stock of the simplest form at high speed with a minimum ofoperations, with obvious economy ofY manufacture.

While I have illustrated and described a certain form in which theinvention may be embodied, I am aware that many modifications may bemade therein by any person skilled in the art,

4 Without departing from the scope of the invention as expressed in theclaim. Therefore, I do not wish to be limited to the particular formshown, or to the details of construction thereof, but what I do claimis:

A Warp guide for lease combs having in combination a flat shank anddents formed integrally therewith by splitting one end of the guide, thedents at points adjacent their junction with the shank being disposed inmutually diverging relation away from the plane of the shank, thereafterconverging and crossing to define an eye to guide a warp yarn, and aftercrossing being continued substantially beyond the eye in parallel toeach other on opposite sides of the plane of the shanlr, the dents beingspaced apart from each other in thedi'rection of the plane of the shankalso to admit an intermediate portion of the length of the yarn into theeye in threading the guide.

THOMAS E. WATSON.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

UNTTED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 772,800 Griffen Oct. 18, 19041,341,244 Ruegg, Jr. May 25, 1920 1,567,102 Balderson Dec. 29,` 19251,757,940 Davis May 6, 19,30 2,039,209 Blum Apr. 28, 1936 2,147,258Kaufmann Feb. 14, 1939 2,209,597 Clark et al. July 30, 1940 2,249,390Mamer- July 15, 1941

